Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[Snike]

"Not sure how viable that is," Blake said, glancing over to the wagon. "They need to get to the estate as soon as possible, since there might be another attack. We can certainly try, however."

***

One crow was down, and another had emerged to bail him out. The smoke snake was still going, however, and it seemed like whoever was inside would get away if things kept up. Pete ignored the ice-slinging Fallen for the time being and aimed towards the smoke snake, letting a few arrows fly into it.

[Mercakete]

Gytha had taken the reprieve as a good opportunity to crouch by the stairs and reload her pistol. When ice shards came flying overhead, she ducked further behind what cover she had, then peeked out, pistol in-hand. It looked like one of Weyland's people were down thanks to a large piece of ice sticking out of his leg. The offender was probably the Fallen flying overhead. The mariner considered firing on him, but then a brown-feathered Fallen flew out of the smoke and tossed some sort of black net at another of Weyland's people and ensnared her. She didn't stay in the open long enough for Gytha to make an effective shot, though, and so trained her aim for the ice-throwing Fallen instead. She'd thought about taking a shot in the dark, but it was just too much chance of not hitting her target. Sure, maybe she could have, but this one was just plain easier to hit. So, she fired on the one who'd been assaulting Weyland's guards from her cover beside the stairs.

[ReformBlade]

"You wanna take a seat or...?" Jericho would've been a polite guy but he was already pretty much failign that having entered it before helping someone else in, thankfully that was all interrupted by a giant lizard head popping in for a second, eliciting a yelp from the redhead who had moved himself at least a foot away from the head. He didn't really fear the thing but it was a sudden thrust and bam, suddenly wyvern face, all of it. thankfully the face receded and a girl he saw from before asked him a question. "I want to say that's the destination, but if not, it's still going to be a destination anyway."

[Phoenix]

Blarg

"Weeeell there aren't that many people stuck on foot from the looks of it. If they lent us just one of them we could probably get these people out of here faster," Ken suggested.

"Eh ... at least with the sharing idea we look less ... entitled, but hopefully stuff like that doesn't come up anyway. I guess we should go ask then, before they finish loading up and take off," Jessica noted, starting off toward the closest wagon immediately afterward.

Meanwhile, Joanna was thinking about home and how convenient, though possibly redundant her abilities as an avian were. Now, out here, where they would be of the most use, she didn't have them. Oddly, that was when Valter mentioned that he hoped she wasn't worrying about failing to help people. That was a rather close guess, she noted. "Well, I ... just wish I was at my best, that's all. I'm only a dark avian now that I live out here, though I suppose it wouldn't make a difference if I was the only one."

Arg

<"OW!!!"> came a high pitched yelp from the fleeing smokescreen. Since it only occurred once, it could be assumed that only one of those shots connected, though the time that passed seemed to indicate that the victim was still alive, as the smoke snake pressed ever onward and didn't leave a body in its wake.

Loki had nearly reached the guards by the time Gytha's bullet reached him. It struck quite close to his heart and completely threw him off balance. As he span to absorb some of the impact, the two guards ready for battle broke away from Gunnar, rushed down the steps and attacked Loki, one of them slicing into his shoulder, and the other tackling him to the ground immediately afterward.

<"Loki, no!"> Gunnar leaped onto the back of the guard who'd slashed Loki and began pulling at his cheek with one hand and tugging on his collar with the other.

Using his own blood, Loki formed a small dagger and stabbed the guard that tackled him in the neck, forcing him off, and then quickly got up and grabbed the other guard by the back of the head and quickly slammed the man's face into his knee, breaking his nose and knocking him out almost instantly. With both guards now out of the fight, and the third still trying to deal with his leg injury before continuing, Loki grabbed Gunnar and literally tossed him into the air. <"Go,"> he instructed his comrade.

As Gunnar tried to steady himself in order to stay airborne and try to catch up to the princess, Loki turned toward the blond with the bow. One of the humans had already used her pistol shot, and wouldn't reload in time to stop Gunnar if he was fast enough, and the human with the explosive crossbow was all tied up at the moment. Still all of these heroics would be for nothing if the bowman shot Gunnar down now, so he needed to keep him busy until they escaped. He charged at the man with complete abandon in order to buy Gunnar enough time to escape.

Blarg Arg

While Steinn tried to fall back to a defensive position, Weyland leaped off the stage and began heading toward what he assumed to be the real Valdimarr; there was just something odd about having a copy of oneself sit back and watch the fight as opposed to the other way around. He didn't know what he was going to do just yet, but getting between Steinn and the more violent Valdimarr was practically a death sentence.

That same Valdimarr meanwhile, grabbed the chair Siv was tied to, turned it toward the fighting on the stage, and took a seat. Siv joined him half a second before he sat down and hugged him from the side, nearly choking him in doing so. <"Lord Valdimarr!">

<"Hey there. How've you been?"> Valdimarr asked, as if absolutely nothing were out of the ordinary. Siv took his casual demeanor as a sign that everything was going to be alright now, and despite there being two Valdimarrs now, she was more happy than confused; he could explain the new spell he'd learned whenever he felt like as far as she was concerned.

<"I've been okay. The humans have been treating me like one of their own ... they locked Norn away, though,"> Siv explained, her expression and tone dropping with the mention of Norn; the princess' accommodations had been far inferior to hers, and she felt that the reason for that was a rather sad one. Before she could sink any deeper into her guilt driven depression, Valdimarr placed his hand on the top of her head. <"Hm?">

<"Be sure to share everything you learned about them with me later. For now, let's enjoy this fight~"> Valdimarr was smiling at first, but as Weyland's approach become undeniably obvious, he glared at the man. Siv, sensing Valdimarr's hostility, stopped hugging him and stood off to the side and slightly behind him, lowering her profile as much as she could without drawing any unwanted attention. <"Up front, Siv. I need a translator,"> Valdimarr stopped her.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Phoenix

[Nanami Touko]

"Too hyped to sit. I can do that later. Why, do you want me to sit next to you?" Eva giggled a bit, but was also surprised when the wyvern's head popped out, more so out of joy than fright. "Oh, hello! What a pretty little lizard! What's your name?" Far too quickly the wyvern disappeared, its head replaced with another woman. "I've no idea, but was that wyvern yours? It's beautiful. What's its name?" I guess I didn't have to worry about bringing Sasha into the city at all if she's got hers in here. Poor guy. Maybe I'll fetch him when I find out where Weyland's estate it.

[Ether]

"<Lord Steinn!"> Annelise exclaimed, as the Valdimarr duo appeared, one of them attacking his... their... brother. Weyland was approaching the other one, who had just made his way over to Siv, but that wasn't important right now. What mattered right now was keeping Lord Steinn alive and as well as possible, which was why the fallen woman did something that at any other time... this time included to be perfectly honest, would be one of the worst ideas one could have.

She charged Valdimarr. With her scythe bathed in dark fire, Annelise rushed towards the quarrelling brothers, swinging her weapon from Valdimarr's side... with any luck it would hook his midsection and force him into a grapple... if she was really lucky it would just rip right through his stomach and kill him outright but that seemed unlikely.

***

"A'ight... time to get back in 'er!" Arietta cried out with renewed vigour, as she launched herself towards the fallen in front, bringing her maul down to strike at the winged fighter, who appeared to be more focused on their archers, than anything.

"Hurry up n'get yer shit together, Anna!" She roared back, before bringing the mass of steel down on the birdman.

***

"Looks like it's not time to rest yet... if you're not willing to charge in with me, you should get off now." Faatina noted to the druidess, who appeared to oblige by stepping off Sharif. Once she was down, the paladin charged the first fallen who had been hit, who was now flying away, though not at enough of a pace to outrun the charging stallion. Luckily enough, it seemed the fighter with the large mace was attacking the one standing guard, which lowered the chance of being tagged from behind.

***

And it had seemed things had mostly moved on... all that was left was to wait for the return to be sorted out, Angelica supposed.

[scorri]

Aiming carefully with the ball of dark magic she'd been holding, Hoshi sent it flying towards the fallen who was attempting to escape. Without checking to see if it hit, she started forming another one while making her way closer to the fight, seeking a better angle from which to attack the enemy.

[Balcerzak]

Sinbad had scooped up his pistol, and spun back to the action in time to see the Weyland employee from before get caught in a tangle of dark energy. Not exactly sure just what it was doing to her, he rushed to the crossbow wielder's side and inquired after her. "Oy, ya'lright there or something I can do ta help? Don't reckon ma sword'll cut through anyuv that funny magic stuff, but iff'n you want I could giver a try? Otherwise..."

The cowboy trailed off while considering the options. Best bet for the moment seemed to be simply placing an arm around the tangled woman, making sure she didn't lose her balance and fall, while aiming the pistol defensively, in case any of the fallen decided to try to fly a beeline at them. Others seemed to be taking various actions, what with Gytha making a pretty nice shot herself, and that Rexian with the nice singing voice riding her horse up in to close the range. Not sure that last was the best idea, but, well, if it came to it, maybe he'd have to try to save her with the bullet. It looked like everything at this point was simply going to play out based on how the enemy aggression fell down. At least insofar as Sinbad was concerned.

---

Well, things seemed to be more or less wrapping up here, Theodore decided, what with the outgoing new arrival seemingly settling in well, and moving on to other conversation. Turning back to Angelica, he gave a few parting words, "Right, well, seeing as you're exhausted from all the acrobatics and magic so far, especially after that sweep to even get in the ball, heh, talk about the worst time to have to try to reconstitute one's control field am I right? Anyway, with all that in mind, certainly no harm in taking the wagon back to the estate, at least you'll get some rest on the way, regardless of what situation might be waiting when you arrive. As for me, though, think I'm gonna go see about helping that blue-haired swordsman. From what little I overheard, seems like a stand-up fellow, refusing to abandon folks needing his help, even after most of this group came out here for the purpose of bringing him back. A good deed like that shouldn't go unrewarded, right? Anyway, maybe I'll run into you later, maybe not, but you've done good work today. You danced pretty well too."

And with a wink, he was off, heading toward the tavern doors where the man in question was conversing with what appeared to be a few soldiers from the guard and a couple other folk of various affiliation. "Righto, don't have the full details here, but it looks like you all could use a helping hand and I'm not ready to turn back just yet when there are people that need saving, so how should I make myself useful?"

Edited January 15, 2014 by Balcerzak
added Theodore

[Snowy_One]

This was bad. Not all the foul beasts were dead in the slightest and one of them was even fighting right now outside! Gah! For a moment Alex almost considered throwing up his hands in frustration at the idea. Not even a moments reprive after beating the beasties down and now a demon attacking? If it wasn't threatening his life by its existence he'd almost consider ignoring it in favor of something less annoying. Still, he had a duty to do and as the demons and people fought, Alex hurried over to the wounded guardsmen and started to heal them, trying to get to everyone as fast as possible.

"If you need healing scream out as loudly as you can!" he called out as he started to heal one of the guards. There are a method. He was trying to triage as best as possible, but with the flurry of action and focus on healing, he couldn't afford delays judging who needed healing the most.

[roymbrog]

“Oh, well… I guess that works for now,” Kat replied to Jericho. She could probably just head over there now, then, if that was the case…

The other woman in the wagon also piped up in response, but with a question. It was a rare day when someone questioned the wyvern rider on her mount. “Oh, thanks. I’m sure she’d tell you that too, but… ehehe, language barriers. Her name’s Volga, though,” Katrina explained.

[Nanami Touko]

"I know, if only. I can't imagine the talks I'd have with Sasha if I could speak to them. And, Volga, you said? That's such a great name. Your wyvern's beautiful, really. You must take great care of her. Oh, sorry!" Eva gasped, laughing slightly. "I didn't even introduce myself before I started jabbing questions at your mount. I'm Eva, a fellow wyvern rider. Though I don't have mine with me. Regretting that now, honestly."

[scorri]

Erion

At the wagon, Erion smiled at Raquel. "Well, shall we?" He knew that she was still distracted by Blake staying behind, but he also knew that those back at the estate were likely in danger. Neither solution was a good one, but it seemed like getting back to the estate was the best one for now.

Hoshi

As she was moving, she spied Anna trapped in what appeared to be a net of dark magic. Rushing over, she arrived in time to hear one of the men who'd arrived that day offering to try and cut it with his sword. "Uhm, excuse me, but may I take a look at the net before you do that?" Without waiting for a response, she started to look over it quickly. "Ah, right. Uhm, this will be easier if I use dark magic to 'cut' it since magic will affect it more. Anna, please hold still, I don't want to accidentally hit you with this." Concentrating for a few second, she quickly produced a small but sharp blade of dark magic. She slowly used it to cut into the intersections of the net's "ropes", slowly but surely creating an opening.

[Snike]

"... Perhaps help with getting everyone ready to go, sir. As for the wagons, very well, then," Blake said, as he, too made for the mercenaries. Once they actually arrived over by the wagons, however, the swordsman didn't wait to be noticed and went directly to Raquel, who Erion was addressing.

"Sorry to interrupt," he said, trying to keep a neutral expression. "But there might be a change of plans. Raquel, would you mind allowing the survivors to share one of the wagons with everyone, at least until we get to the outer walls? It'd speed up our evacuation greatly."

***

Peter had hit something, which, while it was unfortunate that it wasn't a kill, was better than nothing. As he was about to ready another arrow, the ice-wielding crow charged at him. It must have a death wish, which was going to be granted, shortly. The warrior tossed aside his bow, drew his axe, and immediately swung at the enemy. Hopefully he'd actually be able to do more than a mere flesh wound, this time.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Snike

[Phoenix]

This is a Charity

Raquel wasn't in a smiling mood, but she didn't want her depressed mood to start affecting anyone else, so she returned a weaker smile to Erion, trying to at least not look sad about the way things had turned out. As she nodded and turned to get up into the long seat the driver used, Blake approached and delivered some shocking news. It was the good variety of shocking, though, and also had her wondering why she hadn't come up with it herself. Perhaps worrying so much about Blake and not taking enough time to think about the other survivors had caused this. That wasn't a realization that made her feel too good about the situation as a whole, considering how selfish and single-minded it must have been. Without thinking, she said, "I'm sorry ..." apologizing for not offering first.

Of course, with no context, the apology seemed random, or if nothing else implied that she wasn't willing to share. Her eyes widened in shock when she noticed and she quickly corrected herself. "I mean I'm sorry that I got so focused on dragging you out of here. Of course we'll lend you one of the wagons."

Oh, that's good. For a second I was worried that she was a despicable bitch, trying to be polite about leaving people to their fate, Jessica mused to herself, Glad I was wrong. She smiled slightly at Raquel for being so open to the idea.

Dark Resistance

The guard whose neck had been stabbed by Loki's blood dagger, deciding not to aggravate his injury, hauled himself up and jerked on Alex's clothing a few times in order to point him to his wound. "I'm ... not yelling right now. Just please fix this before I bleed out."

Gunnar narrowly avoided the spell that was flung at him, but avoiding it forced him to go even higher, which lost him some time in catching up with the princess. He was reluctant about doing so regardless, especially seeing Loki fighting down on the ground for his sake. Still, if he went back now, he and Loki might both end up dead, and then Loki's death would mean nothing. Gunnar wasn't going to flee like a coward, though. He was a summoner, a weak one, but a summoner nonetheless ... and he had a decent plan for once.

Loki managed to close the distance to Pete, but Arietta intercepted him at roughly the same time. As Pete rose his axe to strike, and Aria brought down her maul, Loki used his ice magic to soften the blow, but releasing all of that pressure created an extremely cold explosion of air when Aria's maul struck it. Loki's arm and Arietta's maul were iced over at the impact points, and frost replaced any sweat that had once been on any of them. In addition to the ice, there was also blood. The ice spell had softened the blow enough to keep the maul from shattering his arm, but that was all. Worse still, Loki was unable to perform the same trick again so soon and was struck in the chest by Pete's axe. "Ergh ... as long as ... the princess and the others make it to safety ... nothing else matters, humans. <Nothing!"> Loki used his free hand to force the axe out of his chest and he staggered away from the two of them.

Just as he did so, two hellhounds appeared at his side. They had been summoned by Gunnar and quickly rushed to Loki's side to aid him. Gunnar couldn't risk summoning another high powered demon that might attack him before going after anyone else, and so he continued his aerial retreat like Loki wanted. <Thank you ... Gunnar ... please protect the princess ... in my absence.>

Meanwhile, Anna tried to find a way to free herself without accidentally firing her Visceral. It would be hard enough to escape on her own, but the trigger was a delicate one, which meant too much struggling could send the thing flying through the net and into the air, where it would land and explode who knows where, or cause it to explode inside the net itself and kill her and everyone nearby in the process. Her worry compounded when Sinbad arrived to help her, though on the bright side, him offering his help meant she might not have to struggle anymore, which lessened the chances of her crossbow going off accidentally.

"It's not like an ordinary net. Your sword should be able to cut through, but I don't think the net will stay cut; it's nothing like a solid object," she explained, though it was mostly speculation, as she'd never encountered a spell like this one before.

The grim analysis didn't seem to stop Hoshi, as she had another method she was going to try. Once she arrived, she pierced one of the dark spheres, that intersection slowly began to disperse, giving Anna enough room to climb out without waiting for the rest of the spell to wear off. She poked her Visceral out first to avoid any accidents and then got her upper torso out, and took aim. "Payback time!" The smokescreen and the fallen containing it were way too far off for an ordinary marksman to accurately hit now, with a gun or an arrow, but Anna took the shot anyway as the net collapsed to her feet, arching it so it would at least make the trip to her targets. With an exploding arrow, her need for accuracy was a lot less, and she just wanted to shake them up enough for the others to catch up. What she wasn't expecting though, was for one of the remaining fallen to do just what one of the others had, and leap straight out of the smoke and into the arrow's path.

<"Escape, princess,"> the fallen soldier yelled as he tried to punch the arrow out of the air, thoughts of his family being rewarded for his sacrifice racing through his mind. Anna stared at the explosion, feeling awkward about how that had played out. The fallen soldier was blown up and scattered to the four winds by the arrow and that messy sacrifice allowed Norn and Runa, the only escapees thus far, to reach a safe distance.

Impromptu Combat Team

If there was one thing Steinn could count on, it was Valdimarr's tactics being somewhat predictable. As Annelise rushed at Valdimarr, Steinn prepared another dark shot. His plan was to wait and fire it the second Valdimarr flanked her. He would likely dodge both of their attacks, but killing him would have been a bonus, not the goal of this next move. In Steinn's mind, the scene played out thus: Valdimarr would evade Annelise's attack and attempt to choke her out, then Steinn's attack would force him to warp again or take a nasty hit to the head. Steinn would then use this opening to reach Annelise and expand his barrier to protect both of them. Neither had much of a chance on their own, so the distance had to be closed here quickly.

Just as Steinn expected, Valdimarr vanished into thin air before Annelise's attack could connect, and as Steinn prepared to loose dark shot near her, Valdimarr reappeared and took her from behind, putting her in just the kind of stranglehold Steinn had been expecting. Steinn released his spell, aiming it so that it wouldn't hit Valdimarr's victim directly if he released her and warped away again. As expected, he did release her and vanish, and the spell raced over her head and between her wings before cruising off into the wall.

<"That's how you want to-"> Valdimarr reappeared unexpectedly behind Steinn and landed a crippling kidney shot, <"-play it?! Die already!"> The blow was so forceful that it lifted Steinn off the ground slightly and launched forward. Instead of falling to the floor, he turned around and tried to stop himself, which caused him to slide the rest of the way to Annelise. Fortunately, Gabbie already figured she should get closer to the group so Valdimarr wouldn't be able to use her to get Steinn to let his guard down. With all three of them in range, Steinn forced the pain from his mind and erected an enormous barrier around the three of them. The plan still panned out, but it definitely costed him.

<"Tch ... well at least you're not hiding behind those runes anymore ...."> Valdimarr gave him that much. Nonetheless, he was getting sick of all the barriers. He already knew this one was potent enough to stop even physical attacks, which severely limited his options.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Phoenix

[Balcerzak]

Sinbad nodded as first a newcomer, then the person entangled herself, explained that, just as suspected, the sword was not the proper solution for this Gordian knot. In the end, the cowboy wasn't sure his presence had accomplished much, as the Kigenese magic user who'd been putting in work in the battle against the demons took and formed a magical knife and sort of sawed through the mystical energy. He supposed at least he'd kept her from losing her balance and falling down, but just what good was tha―

Well, okay, train of thought disrupted as Anna fired off yet another round of serious ordinance from her crossbow. Supposing an accidental discharge, that could have resulted in one or both of them losing a limb. The fallen hit by it certainly lost all of his. That first one she'd fired earlier must not have been a direct hit, or that bald bird would never have survived. Sinbad had still been disoriented and distracted at the time, but now with a fresh perspective, the cowboy had to let out a low whistle.

"That thar ammunition... any o' that come pistol sized?" he breathed in amazement, not really expecting a reply.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Balcerzak

[scorri]

Erion

With a slight sigh of relief, Erion smiled as a solution was found. "Well then, that works perfectly. I suppose that means you don't need the horse after all Blake, but if you don't mind, I'll let you ride back and I'll take the wagon. I kind of raced here and I could for sure use a chance to sit, if you know what I mean. Plus it means I'll get to talk more to Raquel here. Get to know her some more and get to know some more about your group here."

Hoshi

Seeing Anna escape the net, Hoshi sighed in relief. Looking around, she saw two new demons had been spawned and frowned. Creating a dark sphere, she threw it at the closest demon, hoping to be as effective against it as she had been during the battle.

Lumi

In the stables, unaware of everything going on outside, Lumi called out, a bit louder this time, "Eli, please get in here. Your staff is needed for Rizen if nothing else. She's pretty badly injured it seems." Not that she'll let me get close enough to see... "Hey Rizen, it's ok. Oh, here." She pulled out a vulnerary, and showed it to her. "Do you recognize this? It'll help make your wings better. Want to let me use it on them?"

Edited January 15, 2014 by scorri

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

Veronika fidgeted uncomfortably inside of her wagon, her mind imagining Arietta, Gytha, Synthia, Amon...all the members of the group they left behind, locked in a hopeless battle against demons. We must get moving... she thought to herself, but decided that speaking would not hasten the group's departure. She had no desire to participate in the idle chatter going on however, and thus elected to remain silent.

Nadya

Nadya rode atop Luca on the outskirts of the new skirmish occurring, not particularly inclined to get involved. We can't just let 'em leave? she wondered to herself. She would intervene if any of their group looked to be in mortal danger, but they seemed relatively fine thus far. I just want to rest...

Edited January 15, 2014 by -Cynthia-

[Mercakete]

Her shot appeared to land its mark and indeed, the Fallen...fell...and Weyland's people got their opening. However, the other Fallen apparently hadn't been secured yet and so attacked them. Before she could do anything, though, the bird people subdued their foes and the one with the black wings flew off while the one she'd shot hurried elsewhere. That played out quickly, as both the one the Fallen attacked and one who had come to help overwhelmed him. They seemed to have that under control and the snaking smoke by now was way out of her range. That left the black-feathered one. She'd waited too long to reinstate her pistol, though, and so even if she ran, someone else had a better shot at bringing him down at this point, especially as he flew higher and higher.

So, while waiting for a better opportunity to present its self, Gytha kept to her position by the stairs and worked to begin reinstating her pistol again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suspicious as Rizen was, she'd begun to grow used to the new herd she and her rider ran with. But Norbert was usually very good about making sure she was never hurt. So, at the moment, she was that much more cautious, even around the herd members. Still, neither of the humans before her had yet tried anything threatening...and now one even showed her something she recognized was for...healing! Yes, that's what that smell was! Things that made you feel better!

The pegasus only now relaxed enough to raise her head and even walked toward the two women and their accompanying pegasi. She finally trusted them enough to allow them near both her and her rider...especially since it looked like she was going to get healed.

[scorri]

Breathing a sigh of relief, Lumi slowly approached Rizen and carefully and gently rubbed the vulnerary into the wounds that she could see. As she was doing so, she motion towards Bert. "Aneda, could you check his wounds? If they aren't breathing, we should just take him inside and get someone to clean them. Probably shouldn't be healed too much until they've been cleaned."

Edited January 15, 2014 by scorri

[ReformBlade]

Beautiful? That word wasn't one Jericho would use to describe a wyvern, but then again, he never really grew up around them personally, nor did he have any inclination towards them. He supposed it was just a difference between a caretaker and a random onlooker having a difference of opinion and left it at that, though he still didn't quite get the supposed allure of a wyvern. "Heh, well, personally I don't blame you. Wyvern's probably aren't good omens around here, so having one, let alone multiple, would probably put some folk on edge. Look at you, being all subconsciously considerate!"

Giving Norbert a good, somewhat thorough, look over, Aneda's untrained medical eye didn't pick up on anything completely life threatening. Maybe a cut here or there, but nothing bleeding or festering, like she saw on a few people during the fight. "He seems ok, just knocked out, though I wouldn't exactly trust my judgment on this. I honestly wouldn't be able to tell if this is too serious for us to treat or if it'd just need some good old fashioned R and R to fix up."

Edited January 15, 2014 by ReformBlade

[Ether]

Not a bad display by any means... at the very least that ice burst had kept the fallen mage alive a bit longer, she'd give him that. Still, all it did was slow her first strike down, and as the birdman retreated, Arietta pressed onward. Some more demons had been spawned, but they were of the smaller variety... not the type that would have been best to summon in this sort of situation. As one of the hounds approached the warrior, she gave it a hard shoulder check, it's fangs catching themselves on the thick of her armour, not accomplishing much of anything before being knocker aside by the brawler's bull rush. Using the momentum gained from that check was a fairly simple endeavour, with Arietta bringing her maul down in a vertical swing at Loki.

***

"Damn..." Faatina muttered, by the time she had reached the first fallen, he had gotten out of lance range. The paladin supposed all that left for it was to double back and flank the ice user, who conveniently enough was about to have his head smashed open if he didn't dodge... the least she could do was make it so that if he tried to backstep, he'd take a lance to the throat. And so she did just that, turning to attack Loki from behind.

***

<"Lord Steinn..."> Annelise began, trailing off before managing to finish her thought... even when she had initiated, he had been the one who ended up taking the hit. What could she do to try and stop Valdimarr, she wondered...

***

"That's Blake for you... he's pretty on point when it comes to helping people... well, unless those people are trying to help him. Usually when that happens he's your worst nightmare." Angelica replied with a nod, before she turned towards one of the carriages.

"Heh... well, glad you liked it. Good luck, and I suppose I might see you again." The adept concluded, as the duo parted ways and the conversation came to an end.

[Nanami Touko]

She gave Jericho a slightly nervous smile, sighing. "I guess. I knew the people here had some...reservations about the creatures, so I left him outside to save myself any trouble. Not so much for the people here. I wish I understood, they're magnificent beasts. How someone could hate one is beyond me. You like them, right?" I wonder if he'll say yes... I wonder why he'll say yes. A slightly wry smile crept onto her face.

[Snowy_One]

As Alex finished his healing, he got his tome ready as he focused it's energy upon the Fallen guy.

"I don't know who you are or why you're here, but I doubt my employer will like having someone like you on her lawn!" he called out before he channeled as much shining magic into the monster fallen as possible.

[Phoenix]

Tavern

With that decision reached, Jessica hurried back to the tavern to start leading out the survivors; it was now or never. Including the children there were thirty-one extras in total, more than one of the wagons could likely handle, but that was no excuse not to try, the private told herself. The children were directed to funnel into the wagon Raquel's people weren't already occupying while the adults who had protected them stood by. Most of them knew they would be riding on the roof or not at all.

While Jessica oversaw the loading, Ken took a stroll around the battlefield, stopping only to kick a dead demon in the snout to make sure it was dead. One could never be too sure with these things. "Well, I'm glad this nightmare's almost over. Still think I'll retire at the earliest opportunity; if these are the kinds of things security's got to deal with in the future, count me out. Neither my skill set, nor my training covers this crap," he rambled on to himself.

Raquel took a seat beside the driver and leaned back to try and calm herself down some more. The seat was definitely long, but only enough to seat three people, so Erion would have to sit on the driver's right side, or convince the man to let him take the reins so he could be in the middle and beside Raquel for the return trip. Raquel meanwhile thought about the estate and the others waiting there. They at least had the support of Weyland's people, but would that be enough if something really did happen? Bad things tended to happen whenever they split their forces.

Estate Entrance

Loki stepped in to take the full force of Hoshi's spell, knowing the hellhound would be killed by an attack that strong, and as Arietta closed in to attack him again, the hellhound she'd blown passed wheeled around and leaped onto her back, trying to get through her hair and to her neck. That gave Loki a chance to fall back a couple of meters westward and prepare another ice spell.

Having been covered from the dark attack, the other hellhound went after Faatina, the closest and largest threat. It moved off to the side to avoid being trampled and then leaped at the paladin on her right side.

Gunnar, hoping to buy Loki just a bit more time, summoned up two more hellhounds, and then flew off to catch up with Norn and Runa. Those two hellhounds rushed in to try and help the others overpower Loki's attackers.

Anna meanwhile tried to load up yet another Visceral bolt, but was frustrated trying to come up with an attack plan. She couldn't very well fire it now even if it was loaded; she might blow Arietta and Pete off the map, not to mention Faatina, if she reached her target by the time she got a shot off. As much as she wanted to just let them deal with him--not really, she was on a bit of a killstreak--she felt it was more efficient to just blast him and be done with it, especially now that the hellhounds were harassing them with complete abandon.

[spoiler=OoC]Out of range, Snowy.

Conference Room

<I can only conclude that the Valdimarr I'm facing currently is a doppleganger, otherwise, there would be no reason why both of them wouldn't be attacking together. Valdimarr is too proud to sit out this battle ... unless he sees this as a just response to my initial trap. If that's the case, then Weyland is dealing with the real one while we're stuck fighting a fake. The best I can hope for in that case is a draw, and even that will be extremely difficult to obtain.> "Gabriella, can you tell them apart?"

Gabbie shook her head as she quickly said, "Steinn, these two have identical spirits; I can't tell them apart from each other."

"Hmm." That was the worst news Steinn had gotten all evening, though he had to admit, if not for Valdimarr's youth and lust for random conflict, he could definitely be the kind of sovereign the people needed, one who could administrate from more than one place at once. The thought of a sovereign addressing domestic matters while also leading armies in campaigns in the border regions was just a fantastic dream until now. Now, it seemed like an impending way of life.

<"Come on, Steinn ... you know a barrier's not going to save you in the end. You've got to kill me or I'll just keep coming until I kill you.">

Steinn scowled at that, wondering why Valdimarr thought for even a second that he could goad him into attacking. Steinn instead took the opportunity to set some guidelines for Gabbie and Annelise to make sure they could keep pace with the fighting. "Listen," and saying it in common was a good way to keep Valdimarr guessing, "-if he closes in spread out from me, but only far enough to avoid his physical reach and mine. If he gets to a distance from me, get as close as you reasonably can and stay that way until he closes in again." It wasn't a foolproof approach to dealing with Valdimarr's warping shenanigans, but it would allow Steinn to shield them all from Valdimarr's ranged attacks, and keep at least two of their three person team safe from his melee attacks. Until Valdimarr gave them a very good opening, or began to tire, taking a defensive approach was their best option. There was nothing he could do to help Weyland, though, which was regrettable in a situation like this. He doubted Valdimarr would hesitate to kill him if he got bored or agitated.

Meanwhile, the other Valdimarr remained seated with arms and a leg crossed. With Weyland standing there in front of him with a look of utter contempt and tranquil fury on his face, Valdimarr said, <"What's with this one, Siv?"> and glanced at Siv as she came to his right side.

"I take it you don't speak common. That'd be a shame," Weyland said, causing Valdimarr to raise an eyebrow at him.

Suddenly coming to his defense, Siv said, "Lord Valdimarr doesn't need to know common. I am good enough to explain things for him," and stood firm--quite literally--in that decision.

"Well tell him to get the hell out of my house, both of him, before I have to cremate him a second and third time," Weyland growled.

Siv quickly whispered her version of Weyland's demand into Valdimarr's ear, and then the sovereign uncrossed his limbs and stood from the chair. He was significantly taller than Weyland, but not enough to intimidate the man. <"Just try and burn me, wretch, I'll break you in half,"> he said before glancing at Siv.

"Just try and burn him, wretch, he'll break you in half for having me kidnapped and held prisoner," Siv translated, channeling some of Valdimarr's anger for him.

[Snike]

Blake blinked first in surprise, at the apology, but when Raquel explained that she was sorry about not thinking of it earlier, he allowed himself a tired smile.

"Thank you, Raquel," the man said, grateful for the aid. "And don't worry about it. Had you not focused on that, we wouldn't be in the position to help at all."

Then, Erion spoke up and said he wanted to stay with the wagon, to get know Raquel and the others. That seemed odd, given the timing, but no matter.

"That's fine," Blake said, as he put on a calm expression. "Alright, then, I'll go help with the loading."

And with that said, he was off to the second wagon.

***

Damn dogs were on the ladies now, and he couldn't take a swing for fear of accidentally cutting them. Even worse, the crow survived and now was preparing another spell, while more hounds were incoming. Pete cursed and scrambled for his bow. If he was fast enough, he could kill the fallen before the situation devolved.

Edited January 16, 2014 by Snike